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Two Great Generica’s For The Price Of One

  • Addit
  • 10/15/2013 08:04 AM
  • 3641 views


A Game Made By: kentona
Created Using: RPG Maker 2003
It's A: RPG Game
That Roughly Takes Around: 5 - 7 Hours To Complete
And It's A... COMPLETED GAME!!!


If you guys have been following my reviews as of late – like you SHOULD – you’d probably know that a couple of months back, exactly five months to this exact date, that I decided to do a “Duel Review Spectacular Day” where I posted up two reviews – two – on the exact same day (go me). And one of those games that I happened to review was Kentona’s ten day mini-spectacle: Generica. Despite some balancing issues and some GOD AWFULLY slow battle speeds, I happened to plow through it and quite enjoyed my overall experience. I mean, probably the main reason I was overly impressed with the original was the small time frame that Kentona had to get it done that mainly determined the overall score for it (let’s face it; it’s hard making an RPG in a matter of days). But either way – I WANTED MOARS!

…And then I was quite sad to find out that the sequel was stuck in a four year developmental hell. GOD DAMN IT!!!

But, through the power of donations – not to mention the constant “nagging” by the masses – Kentona managed to finally put his big foot down and release this puppy (not to mention Solar Platypus in the exact same week! Yaaaaaaayyyyy!!!) So, naturally so, memories of playing the original Generica started flooding back to me and I just had to play the sequel. Even though I knew judging by most of the screenshots that this is probably going to be more like DLC than an actual full blooded new game. *sigh* …Oh well, STILL SOMETHING, right?

Let’s go make another generic party and go on another generic quest, shall we???

The Story


As a Denver Broncos fan, I simply do not approve of this.


It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? Exactly 33 long years have passed since the original heroes of Generica (that would be you, if you’ve played the original and beat it) managed to overcome all universal odds by defeating the nefarious Slayer King. Wielding the legendary Generica Gladius, these heroes managed to bring back the peace and the harmony to the world of Generica and make it safe once again. However, uncertain times are soon on the horizon as word is that someone - or something - is planning to resurrect the fallen king so he can reclaim his rightful crown. Of course, since the original band of heroes have fallen into retirement and seem to have just…vanished off the face of the world (seriously? What happened to them, anyways?), a new generation of heroes must step forth to answer the call for justice, order and supreme ass-kicking.

On the southern continent of the world of Generica in a small town simply known as Humboldt, Cardinal Robbins has just finished training a group of warriors that he’s hoping will locate the one who’s responsible for all this and stop the resurrection phase of the evil Slayer King. These heroes are soon about to embark on a quest that will take them all over the land; slaying monsters; stealing some gear; looting shelves; scoring with some hot chicks – and, most importantly of all, become the next generation of heroes.

The only real mystery is, who exactly is this mysterious vessel who wishes to revive the Slayer King – and can he or she be stopped? Who knows. But it’s at least worth a hero’s try.

Shakespearian plot for the ages? Pfft. If you’ve played the original Generica, you kinda know where the story is pretty much going… Do this, visit town, find such thing in dungeon, awe-inspiring words, repeat, beat bad guys, final boss, done; the formula really hasn’t changed that much. But in all honestly, that’s the way it was back then. And since Generica: The Next Generation follows a similar pattern to this, I think that this kind of setup works well too. You aren’t going to have the greatest plot elements (although, I will admit, similar to the original, once you get to the halfway point things start to get somewhat interesting) nor the greatest character development, but these types of things work just fine for a game like this. There are definitely going to be some people who are going to dismiss the story here because it’s pretty much “non-existence” or lacks anything “new” or “creative” to what we’ve already seen before. But since I grew up playing a lot of role playing games on the NES or the SNES, most games were kinda like this, actually. And you know what; sometimes simplicity is always for the best. It’s kind of nice once in a while to just play a role playing game not for the story alone but for the overall experience of it all. By no means am I saying that this game doesn’t have a standout plot or shreds of character development, as it does shine at appropriate times; all I’m saying is the more simplistic the overall narrative is the less headaches it can often endure. Some people have trouble coming up with a decent story for their games. I like to think if developers modelled themselves after this game that they can kinda get away with such a fault.

To sum everything up, the story in Generica: The Next Generation starts off a bit slow but goes full steam ahead towards the midway point of the game. And actually, if you managed to play and beat the original Generica - you’ll be in for a few surprises at times! The only thing I didn’t like is how quickly everything seemed to wrap up towards the end of the game. It was like Kentona just said, “I’m tired of working on this hellhole; here’s a gauntlet of bosses for you to do.” And that’s just it…just when things were starting to get interesting… (You couldn’t have thrown in at least ONE more final creative dungeon there, boss???)


The Gameplay


Deckiller: “Sooooooooo…what do we now – fearless leader?”


Okay, first real important thing to get out of the way: THE BATTLE SPEED IS ACTUALLY FAST FOR ONCE! *highfives* Thanks to the incredible power of PepsiOtaku’s Faster ATB Patch all random encounters now will go twice as fast as before, making combat simple, quick and non-tedious. Yes! What about any other additional goodies, you ask? Well – there’s a lot of them! For starters, and perhaps the coolest feature of them all, you can play the original Generica and vice versa with the game’s old classes along with the several new ones too. Sweet! So if you wanted to, you could revive your old party from the original game to take on the baddies for the new game. Or, if you wanted to, you could beat the new game with the new classes and take that team into the original Generica via New Game + option. And yes; once you beat any of the games, you will have the option to start a New Game + which will allow you to play either game with the same party, equipment, money, items and spells that you currently had in your last adventure. So, wait a minute – lemme get this straight! So you have the option to play either Generica or Generica: The Next Generation, with the old classes from the first and have a New Game + option thrown in to boot? SCORE!!! This is so f’in’ awesome; it’s like having two games in one, which doubles the overall length time.

Now I appreciate the bonus and all, but a part of me thinks that if both games are now packaged with this one game then what’s the point of downloading the original Generica now? Although it’s a nice gesture to include everything together, you basically have a completed game sitting around with nobody wanting to download it or play it since you have the complied version now. When it comes to marketing, you always want people to play your old games, even if there is a collection package already available. Just recently, Kentona updated the original Generica with the Faster ATB patch and with both games packaged in that one too. I suppose the cause is just, but some people might wanna play the original one for funsies, slow battle speeds and all.

Anyway, moving on… Besides the new classes, the two games in one package deal, the increased battle speed, Generica: The Next Generation pretty much plays the same like its counterpart, which isn’t really a bad thing; it’s simple role playing 101 principles here. As for the difficulty, well…compared to the original Generica, I found this game to be a lot more easier in terms of the puzzles and the enemies. Sure I had a couple of my party members bite the bullet at times. But in the end, I never saw the game over screen even once during my playthrough. This could be probably based on my team setup, as I do have two healers with me, but it still was much easier to handle this time around than the first (god damn Ice Dragon). As for grinding, I never really had to grind at all in this game except for the very first dungeon in getting everybody up to level 2 just to be on the safe side. Basically, it depends on your party setup and your overall skills. The same goes with buying equipment, as I didn’t always buy the best set of gear considering how easy a lot of these enemies were.

Overall, the gameplay remains tired and true to what it is. If you played the original, you pretty much know what’s coming. But all the new minor touch-ups make this game a lot more enjoyable than the first.


The Soundtrack


Liberty: “BUY ME THAT HAT!”
Shinan: “NO, SCREW THAT – LET’S GO OVER THERE AND BUY ME THAT SHINY STAFF!”
Deckiller: *Oof* “STOP PUSHING ME!!!”
Kentona: *sweatdrop*


Kentona must really love his Dragon Quest… Anyways, pretty much all you’ll be listening to is music from the various Dragon Quest games in glorious MIDI form! There’s also some other tunes thrown in from some other various NES games as well to shuffle things up and not keep things too stagnant. But since I’ve never played any of the Dragon Quest games (please don’t kill me), I didn’t find the music that annoying or very repetitive, or anything; I thought that it was just fine and worked quite well. It’s actually nice hearing some good ol’ MIDI music once and awhile, as everything nowadays is MP3 this and OGG that. As for the sound effects, *bleep* *bloop* *beep*. You know, MS-DOS stuff. Overall, as long as it fits the setting, I don’t have a problem with that.

The Aesthetics


Liberty: “Y-You feelin’ all right there, Kentona?”


While the original Generica looked pretty good and had some decent mapping here or there, I would like that Generica: The Next Generation continued this tradition and even more so! Some of the maps, like in Mt. Peek & Yggdrasil have some very interesting creative styles and looked awfully quite good for what they are (looks like somebody has been improving). And although the same Dragon Quest styled rips are once again used here (gotta go with the classics), they are once again used to the absolute fullest. If you’re a graphic whore, you’ll probably just go, like, “blah – what the hell IS this!?” But I, for one, like the old school. And the presentation for this game is pretty damn well solid. Sure it could use a bit of an upgrade – BUT THIS OLD SCHOOL, DAMN IT! *fist slam* And if you don’t like it, then don’t play it.

The End Result


…Well, at least until Generica 3 gets announced. :)


Hey – you can’t beat a sweet deal like having two games in one, right!? Although this review is primarily based ONLY on Generica: The Next Generation, the addition of having the original tucked in there for good measures only just boasters the entire deal. In a nutshell, similar to the original I had a darn good time with this one. The minor improvements made were pretty much all I needed in the end. A good sequel doesn’t have to completely retool everything or have a major graphical upgrade; it can just be something like this. And I for one enjoyed it, probably more so than the original game. While the whole wow factor is dropped knowing how long this game took to release over the original, the sequel tried to step it up the best it can by adding in some pretty nice features. In the end, this is a solid RPG, maybe not one aesthetically and in grand detail, but it’s a solid RPG nonetheless. If you’re a fan of much older styled RPG’s then I definitely recommend giving this a go. If you’re new to the series, I suggest playing both games to the absolute fullest (which means NO New Game + option).

Now here’s hoping we don’t have to wait another four more years for another one.


OVERALL GRADE:
4 / 5 - B ~ Pretty Darn Good!!!

Posts

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I really do love my Dragon Quest. Also, there will be no next one because I wrapped up the story in this one.

Fun Fact: the Gauntlet of Bosses was the original motive/idea behind this game. My original intent was to have a short RPG leading up to a Boss Rush Finale (inspired in part by Ephiam's boss battle games). But by the end it wasn't that I was out of ideas and just made a boss gauntlet, it was I was out of energy to make the boss gauntlet spectacular! Plus I suck at making creative bosses. I am more of a meat n' potatoes random battle maker.

Thanks for the makerscore review!
author=kentona
Also, there will be no next one because I wrapped up the story in this one.


Oh, you say that now - but you just never knnnnnoooowwwww!!!

And I didn't think the boss gauntlet part wasn't too bad. Sure, most of them were incredibly easy and didn't really have a complex strategy to beating them (except the Slayer King), but it was still fun, I guess.

(Er, BTW, what ever happened to the original heroes from the first game? Did they all just retire or simply just disappeared? I have to know this.)




They retired. Plus they are on a completely different continent. And they'd be in the 50s or 60s or older (or dead) by now.
Hey, if the Wizard on my team is in his eighties and he’s still kicking ass then what’s the problem with the former heroes doing so?

Actually, just thinking about it now, it would have been cool if post game you could sail up to the northern continent and visit your old team members, kinda like how in Breath Of Fire II you could run into Karn and Bo from the first game on giant monster island.
In retrospect, I should have made it 80 years after the events of the original Generica.
No, I like it like this; the whole timeline thing creates hilarity, like why Ergo is still alive and how can an old man lead a pack of misfits on a wild goose chase without even earning a decent paycheque for it.
author=Addit
Actually, just thinking about it now, it would have been cool if post game you could sail up to the northern continent and visit your old team members



Time for fan mods I guess.
author=Addit
No, I like it like this; the whole timeline thing creates hilarity, like why Ergo is still alive and how can an old man lead a pack of misfits on a wild goose chase without even earning a decent paycheque for it.
welp I think I forgot to explain Ergo in-game.


A story for another time, I guess...
author=kentona
welp I think I forgot to explain Ergo in-game.

A story for another time, I guess...


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